Five Times
by Xairathan
Summary: They were normal, and then one day, they weren't. AU where Asuka, Rei and Shinji were friends since childhood; Sachiel through Bardiel


They watch the same movies every time Rei comes and sleeps over at Misato's apartment. Asuka and Shinji don't mind; they love seeing the same plots as much as Rei does, and in time they become so acquainted with what they're watching that they can pick out the errors in their sleep. "See, her hair's frizzy here, and then in the next scene it's flat again," Asuka whispers one night, when Shinji's taken cold medicine and fallen asleep and she and Rei are still watching the movie.

"You're right," Rei replies, her voice laced with that gentle giggle that Asuka just can't get enough of. Her longing must show on her face, because Rei is tilting her head in confusion, another quirk of hers that Asuka loves, and she's on the verge of asking if something's wrong when Asuka leans over and kisses her on the cheek.

"I like you, Rei," Asuka says, and the tightness in her chest that's been building for the past few months suddenly vanishes all at once. It's a huge relief, but now she's even more nervous than before, waiting for a reaction that could mean the death of her most valued friendship.

"You're funny, Asuka," laughs Rei, and Asuka laughs along in relief. She hasn't been rejected, and Rei doesn't suspect anything.

They do this for the next sleepover, and the one after that, Asuka sneaking in a kiss whenever Shinji's not paying attention or when he goes to the kitchen to get more snacks.

There is no third sleepover. An extraterrestrial creature named an Angel attacks Tokyo-3 a month later, and all three children are drafted into the Evangelion program. None of them suspect a thing, or question why it's only them when there's an entire city of teens to pick from.

Their first engagement is the most nerve-rattling experience of their lives; more frightening to Rei than group presentations, more gut-churning to Asuka than the nightmares that involve the loss of her mother. They gather in the locker rooms, changing into plugsuits that make them look so much older than they really are, and when Asuka turns around to check herself in the mirror, Rei is there.

"What is it?" Asuka asks.

"Be careful. For me," Rei says, and for the first time, she kisses Asuka back. Not on the lips; that's too intimate for friends, but just past them, far along Asuka's jawline to still be considered her cheek, but bordering on something else. Asuka stares at her as she leaves the locker room to go talk to Shinji, touching her face where Rei's lips met her skin.

She's still touching that place when the Angel is a smoldering ruin on the hillside, laid low by Shinji's concentrated firepower and Asuka's brutal and up-close style of combat. Misato asks the medics to take a look and see if any sympathetic damage from their fistfight is manifesting in Asuka, but they find nothing, and Asuka doesn't want to tell them that a kiss has done more to her than she believes an Angel could ever do.

She's wrong about that.

The next few fights are normal: an Angel with tentacles that impales Shinji's EVA but leaves him unscathed; a blue octahedron that screams and leaves Rei's unit out for weeks, and a giant whale that Asuka skewers and makes a joke about serving for dinner. The fifth enemy, titled the Seventh Angel- Asuka still doesn't get why they skipped angels one and two- makes her reconsider things.

Shinji and Rei's EVAs had been in the workshop, so they sent her out alone. Misato was confident; the MAGI were confident; even Commander Ikari had given the plan the green-light. She'd struck with the Magorox sword, cutting the Angel in half at the core, and that was supposed to be it. Instead, the Angel itself had split in two, and proceeded to give Unit-02 a beatdown of city-shattering proportions. The numbers trickled in like blood from Asuka's wounds. Unit-02 would be disabled for three weeks; there were nearly a thousand dead or wounded; they'd had to level significant portions of the surrounding hillside to lure the Angels away and bomb them into some vague form of submission.

And now, as if adding insult to injury, Shinji and Rei were going to be undergoing synchronized training to bring the Angels down. _That should be me out there,_ Asuka seethes as she lies motionless in her hospital bed. _Me with Rei, me protecting her-_ and here Asuka's anger fails her and yields to a quiet sob, barely audible over the beeping of the monitors. _I wanted to protect her, and now she's protecting me._

Lost in her misery, she doesn't hear the door open and close. Something brushes her face, and Asuka moves to swat it away. Her hand comes into contact with Rei's, cool against her face, and Asuka notices Rei's wearing her white plugsuit. "We're going soon," Rei says. "I wanted to make sure you were alright."

"I'm fine," Asuka says, more a defeated sigh than anything else. Rei's the only one she'll consider letting her guard down for, and at the moment, she's too tired to try and ward her best friend away from her emotions. "You take care of yourself, won't you?"

"I will." Rei stands to leave, and Asuka grabs her wrist with a strength even she didn't know she had within her. Rei glances down at her, confusion in her eyes.

"Promise me."

The corners of Rei's mouth curve up in a smile. "I promise." Asuka releases her hand, but before she goes, Rei bends down, grabbing the railings of Asuka's bed, and presses her lips to Asuka's bandaged forehead. "I'll be back tonight, okay? Just rest." She smiles again, a sight more radiant than the sun shining high in Asuka's window, and then she's gone.

Asuka doesn't rest, though. She stays awake, trying to hear the battle above, wondering if the faint rattling of the IV drip against metal is because of the shaking of the city, or her own fraying nerves. True to her word, Rei returns that night, a book in hand, and reads to Asuka until they both fall asleep. Misato comes in the morning after and sees them holding hands, but doesn't tell anyone: they wouldn't believe her, and Rei and Asuka need something to keep to themselves, with the way NERV controls their privacy.

Things proceed as normal as they get better at defeating Angels. Shinji saves Rei from the heart of a volcano; Rei returns the favor by shielding him from an Angel that rains acid as its form of attack. They work together to bring down an Angel that falls from the heavens, while Ritsuko and the bridge team get to add a silhouette to their desks when they down one all by themselves.

It's too easy.

When the twelfth Angel comes and takes Shinji, they're unprepared, and when they try to go after him, it takes Rei too.

And Asuka, for the first time since her mother died, is alone.

It's only then she realizes how much she depended on Shinji, and how much more she depended on Rei. They have to lock her in solitary confinement to stop her from tearing through half of NERV and climbing into her EVA to try and save them both. In her mind, Asuka knows she stands no chance against an Angel that eats EVAs and cities, but it's better to die with her friends in the bowels of darkness than to be the sole survivor, with the pressure of protecting the world resting on her shoulders.

When they suggest a N2 barrage, Misato is the only one who stands by Asuka. The rest of NERV have already chalked up Rei and Shinji as losses. Necessary sacrifices, they say, to protect all of mankind. They'll get more EVAs and more Children.

Asuka doesn't want more EVAs and more Children. She wants Shinji back; she wants Rei. _Her_ Rei. But she obeys orders, because if she doesn't then she won't be a pilot any longer, and maybe when they bombard the Angel, she can split its corpse open and try to rescue her friends.

She doesn't need to do that. Shinji rips his way free of the Angel, carrying Rei's EVA in his unit's arms, and when both of them collapse against the blood-slicked street, Asuka's already ejecting from her EVA, climbing down the arms and legs in a frantic scramble where one misstep will ensure that she ends up a mess of gore indistinguishable from the Angel's. But her arms and legs are sure, and her grip is strong, and she's the first one to the entry plugs. She pulls Shinji's open as she passes, dumping him onto the asphalt, but she only has eyes for her destination.

Rei is curled up inside her entry plug when Asuka pries it open, red eyes staring blankly into nothingness. They move to look at Asuka as she climbs in, distinguishing nothing more than a shadow against a blinding light. This must be what death is, Rei thinks, and it's finally come to claim her. She hears her name; it crashes against her ears like the roar of an ocean, and she closes her eyes, only to open them once again when she feels something against her lips.

She sees red; red hair and red clothing, and recognition clicks in her mind. _Asuka._

"You're okay," Asuka whispers as they part, as if nothing's happened and Rei hadn't just come out of the depths of an Angel and Asuka hadn't kissed her like it was their last day alive.

"So are you," Rei answers, her mind too scattered to find any other reply than that. Asuka grins, as much out of relief as anxiety and grief, and holds Rei against her, keeping her warm, keeping her close.

When Misato and the NERV recovery crews find them ten minutes later, they're both asleep, Rei nestled safely in Asuka's arms, Asuka letting the exhaustion of the past 48 hours wash over her at last.

They don't get any new Children, but they get a new EVA, true to Misato's word. It's called Unit-03, and Asuka thinks the paint job looks hideous but offers to test it anyway, to give Rei and Shinji a break from their previous ordeal. She sees her friends off to school before driving with Misato to NERV and changing into her plugsuit, demanding they at least do something to the EVA that makes it _not_ blue and orange. Misato only laughs, saying they'll consider it, and Asuka rolls her eyes and gets into the entry plug.

The start-up sequence is _nominal_. The battery power is _nominal_. Everything is _nominal_ up until the moment when a screaming blue light pierces its way into Asuka's eye, and suddenly she's screaming, and her Unit is screaming, and the entire world seems to scream along as it's ripped up piece by piece by the ensuing explosion.

She doesn't remember much after that. Only more screaming, and pain, and a crushing silence.

When Asuka wakes up again, she's under a familiar ceiling. She, Rei, and Shinji have all been there at one point or another, and they've always woken up alone, which is why when Asuka groans and tilts her head, she's surprised to see someone sitting in the chair next to her bed.

Rei is there, chin slumped against her chest, a stack of unread books to her left and a larger stack to her right. How long she must've waited, Asuka can't tell. She tries to reach out, but finds she's restrained: a straitjacket holds her arms close to her body, and when she tries to speak, her voice is nothing more than a harsh whisper. All the screaming must've damaged her vocal cords. She struggles to make a sound, anything that would wake Rei up, but only frustrates herself further. She's on the verge of trying to tip the IV stand over when Rei finally stirs, blinking slowly as she registers that it's the afternoon- and then she sees Asuka.

"You're awake," Rei says, and her voice is hushed as well, from what must be days of waiting. "They were beginning to think you'd never wake up."

 _How long has it been?_ Asuka tries to say, but only a weak groan emerges. She squeezes her eyes shut, tears of rage and impotency filling her eyes, but Rei scoots her chair closer and runs a hand through Asuka's hair.

"You weren't out long." Rei says this as if she knows what Asuka's trying to ask her, consulting the calendar by Asuka's bedside before continuing. "Just under a week." Finally her voice breaks, showing some emotion after six days of showing none. "I'm so glad you're alright."

Asuka wants to pat her hand, but she can't move. Rei sits up in her chair, and Asuka notices she's moving differently, as if she's been injured. Of course; Rei and Shinji were probably the ones who had to fight her after... whatever happened. She'll need to ask them about that later, when she's regained her voice. For now, she's more than content to have Rei's company, as limited as it is.

"I'm... I'm going to tell Misato and Shinji you've woken up, okay?"

Asuka's eyes widen, and she rocks slightly from side to side. Rei's hand traces the curve of her face as she whispers, "It's just for a moment. I'll be back after." She moves to get up, but before she leaves, she leans over and kisses Asuka like she did what seemed like years ago, only this time, she kisses Asuka on the lips. Asuka stares at her, a mix of disbelief and shock on her face, and Rei smiles down at her briefly before she vanishes.

 _She kissed me back,_ is all that Asuka can think until the door creaks open several minutes later, and Rei takes her place back by Asuka's side. Asuka looks at her, curving one eyebrow up in the best imitation of communication she has available.

It takes Rei a moment to read Asuka's expression, but when she does, a giggle escapes her, and Asuka's heart soars. "I guess you'd like an explanation," she says, placing her hand over where Asuka's probably is and squeezing. Asuka nods, and Rei bends down to whisper in her ear. "I like you too, Asuka." Asuka smiles, and Rei returns it and kisses her again, and in that moment, everything clicks into place, and Asuka decides she doesn't regret a single second of it.


End file.
